Embassy News

NICOSIA (Reuters) - Cyprus says independent minded flag makers have been adding their own creative touches to the national flag for 45 years and it's time to get it right.

Cyprus's white flag should have a copper-coloured map of the guitar-shaped island in the centre, above two olive branches.

But Mr. Andreas Christou, director of the government supplies office, says: "It seems every department has been going to local manufacturers and some like the colours lighter, some darker. They like the map bigger or smaller."

Now, flags flying the wrong colour will be replaced by ones with the correct shade of copper, he added.
That shade is neither yellow, nor orange nor red but copper, and to be precise, 144-C, to reflect the Mediterranean island's historical attachment to the metal.

Cyprus was famed from antiquity for its rich resources of copper and is believed to have given its name to the Latin word for the metal, "Cuprum", or "ore of Cyprus".